


mask undone

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [311]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Betrayal, Con Artists, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 13:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7223944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal is a thief.  <i>Reformed, Peter, remember?</i> he'd say, if he were here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	mask undone

**Author's Note:**

> Title: mask undone  
> Disclaimer: not my characters  
> Warnings: future!fic; AU  
> Pairings: Peter/Elizabeth  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 190  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: any, any,  
>  _You can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold,_  
>  You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold.
> 
> Written in 2013.

Neal is flashy and sharp, brilliant and remote. He's a smile and a laugh, bright eyes and glorious ideas. He's a thousand lies all wrapped up in pretty packaging, and the worst of it is that Peter _knows_ that. Has always known it. 

And he still fell for it.

.

Neal is a thief. _Reformed, Peter, remember?_ he'd say, if he were here. 

If he were here.

.

They all fell for it. The entirety of the office, June, Elizabeth, Mozzie, Peter. 

It's those last two that keep surprising Peter.

.

 _Self-fulfilling prophecies_ , El whispers, to comfort herself. _All those agents, muttering about it being a con._

Peter doesn't say, _But it **was** a con_. 

.

Mozzie vanishes a day after Neal does. But first, he shows up at Peter’s house and demands to know if Peter was in on it. 

Peter wasn’t. Neither was Mozzie.

.

Peter wonders, sometimes, while flipping through the file he’ll never admit to having, what the plan was. What the endgame was. Years of Neal’s life, four of them in prison… what was he doing? What did he get out of it? 

Peter will never know.


End file.
